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The Grand Century: Times of Change
By Ambrose P. Harding, Cambridge University Press, 1954


INTRODUCTION

“…Given the ever-twisting trends of politics during and after the Grand Century, it may seem generalising in the extreme to attempt to assign each distinct period its own era. Nevertheless, if one looks above the feuding rivalries that we might otherwise be distracted by, it is not difficult to identify three distinct periods:
  1. The Parisian era, lasting from 1789 to 1815, which spread the ideas of egalitarianism over Europe, and awoke the latent strains of nationalism;
  2. The short-lived Viennese era, which featured that wonderful and rare thing known as peace in Europe, and which lasted out until the revolutions of 1848 (or the Danubian War, depending on whom one believes);
  3. The Constantine Era, named for the treaty that solidified European relations for the remainder of the Grand Century, which finally pinned down the idea of waging war on a nation without resorting to anything as crude as actual war.
"The reader may feel that these designations are generalised, but when examining one’s own culture or history, the temptation to examine and proclaim every minor detail of the pattern as an integral feature, and a great number of otherwise competent historians fall prey to this…”

[The Constantine Era, as mentioned above, is confidently stated by numerous sources to have begun at various dates, with the most outlandish being from America (dates from 1846 to 1854 have been claimed by various scholars, but the consensus is very much an elliptical affair, with 1848 and 1854 being listed as the beginning years of this era.]

PART III: THE DANUBIAN WAR AND THE CONSTANTINE ERA

Chapter I: The Holy Land and the Build-Up to War

"...The background to the Danubian War is long and convoluted, but the first cause of antagonism between the various powers began (as so many terrible things do) in France, specifically with President Napoleon's promotion to Emperor in 1851-2, and his subsequent claim that he protected the Christians of the Holy Land. This claim was disputed by both Sultan Abdul Majid (who considered that he protected all Ottoman citizens) and Tsar Nicholas I (who already held this title). France responded by sending the Charlemagne through the Bosporus Straits into the Black Sea - an illegal act according to the London Straits Convention - and simultaneously throwing money and diplomats at the Sultan. This tactic paid off, and Abdul Majid agreed to acknowledge France as protector of the Christians of Palestine, much to the Tsar's chagrin.

"Soon after the Holy Land incident, Russian troops began to amass on the Danube. The Russian line was that the incident had not only robbed the Orthodox Church of its rightful duty, but that it had proven Napoleon to be a bloodthirsty warmonger, using violence and threats as a first resort, not a last. The Tsar assured Britain that it had no wish to expand further into Ottoman territories, and wished only to defend the Orthodox Christians of the Empire from Catholic influence, counting on the bad feelings towards Catholics that still lurked in British politics to drive a wedge between Britain and France. However, British intelligence revealed the full extent of the Russian troop movements along the Danube, which did not tally with Russian assertions.

"In 1853, Russia sent Prince Menshikov to the Sublime Porte [the Ottoman Court] to discuss Russia's rights with regard to the Orthodox citizens of the Empire. Unfortunately, Menshikov and the Ottomans disagreed as to the appropriate degree of protection - Menshikov believed that Russia should be able to intervene whenever the Tsar felt appropriate, whereas the Porte felt that this would allow Russia to legally invade whenever it chose to. Menshikov caused further bad feeling when, on the first meeting, he complained loudly about the Sultan's compromise with the French, and began to ask for several high-ranking civil servants to be replaced, presumably for disagreeing with him.

"France, concerned by the Russian aggression, launched a naval task force, while the British Prime Minister sent Lord Stratford to convince the Sultan not to agree to the treaty. Russia countered this by forcibly occupying the Danubian Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, believing that the Powers of Europe would hardly object to his seizing some land from the Ottomans - Franz-Josef I of Austria, in particular, owed Russia a favour for the help offered during the revolutions of 1848. Britain and France, however, saw reason to be alarmed, and they each sent a fleet to the Dardanelles. Diplomats representing Britain, France, Prussia and Austria converged on Vienna, where they drafted a compromise to secure peace between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. It was received well by Tsar Nicholas, but not so well with Abdul Majid, who disliked the vague phrasing of the clauses. Suggestions to amend the note for the Sultan were ignored by the Tsar.

"Prussia and Austria believed that the diplomatic procedures could still succeed, but Britain and France saw no point in continuing the process in the face of such obnoxiousness on the part of the Tsar. Neither did the Sultan, apparently, for in October of 1853 the Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia..."

Chapter II: The Early War and the Austrian Question

"As Russia and the Ottoman Empire went to war, the European Powers found themselves forced to choose which side (if any) to support, a rather inconvenient state of affairs for any government, as it requires a definite statement to be made. Britain and France hardly hesitated before issuing the Russian Empire with a five-point ultimatum:
  • Recognise the sovereignty of Wallachia and Moldavia.
  • Abandon claims regarding the Orthodox Christians.
  • Help us to re-write the Straits Convention.
  • Let the Danube become an international river.
  • Or else we will sail over to Russia and blow your d*mned heads off.
"Prussia was less concerned with the goings-on in these territories far beyond its borders, and prepared to declare neutrality, leaving only the question of what side Austria would take. To declare war on the Ottomans would mean the probability of gaining influence or territory in the Balkans, while neutrality would allow it time to prepare for the power-shift at the end of the war. Declaring war on Russia would, of course, be political and military suicide at this time. Therefore, Austria abstained from declaring until the war had progressed to a point where the victory was plain.

"It so happened that Lemberg - the capital city of the Austrian Kronland of Galicia and Lodomeria - was having severe problems with its various non-Austrian ethnicities, in particular the Poles and Ruthenians. The crux of the trouble was that the Poles wanted a fully autonomous Galicia-and-Lodomeria, while the Ruthenians were calling for a fully Americanised [Federalised] Austria, with separate states for each ethnicity, and the main point of each argument was that they wanted the other ethnicity to be plucked from the city. This lead to frequent tension within the city, and, as in 1848 and 1854, occasional riots or rebellions [1]. The 1854 rebellion proved to be particularly vicious, and the town soon became Dutch in spirit [2]. The rebellious fever managed to erupt from the town, and the Emperor feared that all the Kronland might rise against Vienna unless the uprising could be quelled - possibly by a strong neighbour that had recently deployed troops in the region.

"The Tsar offered help in crushing the rebellion on the condition that Austria declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Franz-Josef readily agreed, and a few Russian companies were diverted from the effort on the Danube. Lemberg and the surrounding area was placed under Austrian military administration until the situation had calmed down. The Treaty of Lemberg solidified the terms of the temporary Austro-Russian alliance, and divided the Balkans into spheres of influence: Servia, Bosnia and the Black Mountains would go to Austria, while Russia would extend down from the Danubian principalities - to become formally Russian - into Bulgaria, Roumelia and Thrace, with administration over the area surrounding Constantinople. The Aegean coast of the remaining territory would be offered to Greece, with an Albanian kingdom being established as the last part.

"Austria was now firmly in the Russian camp, and Prussia was even more firmly neutral - the safest affiliation when the alternative is fighting a war with one of its extremely powerful neighbours, all of whom had historic grudges against Prussia. As soon as the ultimatum expired, France and Britain declared war on Austria and Russia..."

[1] This is the POD - finally...
[2] A no-go area; specifically, one dominated by aggressive ethnocrats. You'll see why much later.

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Well, this is the first part of that Cold Crimean War thing I've been looking at. I'm probably not going to update it for a while, since I'm kind of juggling some projects here - I've found that if I have several on the go and update whichever one people ask for first, the popular ones actually get some progress on them, whereas the useless ones sink into the depths of the forum lest they frighten the horses.

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